Friday, October 31, 2014

Diplomacy and Decision Making: The Island Simulation

Program Title:
Diplomacy and Decision Making: The Island Simulation Date: September 29th

Staff Member(s): Gabriel Borelli and Dreisen Heath

Staff Member Area(s): CLARK

Were any other student groups/offices/organizations
involved? If so, please list: N/A

Please provide a brief description of the program:

Professor
Gallarotti came to do an activity with us involving citizenship and community
building. It was a simulation from his
government class in which everyone involved is “abandoned” on an island and
then challenged to form a successful community in order to survive. Success of the simulation depends on the
cooperation and teamwork of everyone involved, though there is no single
solution to answer the “survival” question of the activity. The activity itself, overall, is open-ended,
allowing room for creative but nonetheless doable solutions if the hypothetical
situation were real.

Please list any materials/items/supplies needed for the
program, as well as an approximate budget:

We ended up using
$100 in faculty funding for pizza from Mondo, though the food itself wasn’t
necessary for the program and was bought mainly because we held the event at
dinnertime.

In your opinion, what made this program such a success?

I honestly don’t think that the program was successful
because of the food. It might’ve drawn a
few extra residents to the event, though some didn’t eat and came because the
activity itself seemed interesting. I
drummed up a lot of hype among my residents by reminding them every time I saw
them and telling them how great Professor Gallarotti was, having gone through
one of his classes and done the same activity with him that he did with my
residents. I think the fact that Professor Gallarotti is someone who I know and
who I have worked with influenced my residents’ decision to come, as they
trusted me enough to believe that I would only have asked Professor Gallarotti
to come if I knew the activity that we would do would be fun, interesting, and
insightful. Once the event began, the
activity just carried itself. The
residents got really into the simulation and had an excellent discussion on
community building. This hypothetical island
served as a fun metaphor for the ResLife community on Clark 3, and the
residents really enjoyed it. I think
this spin on our community really boosted the event, as a conversation based
solely around making Clark 3 a community as a hall would have come across stale
and boring.